About

Group general counsel of the €15bn revenue Merck Group Dr Friederike Rotsch describes how the company has changed significantly during the time she has been with it, and how she has assisted in this process. ‘Over the last twelve years Merck underwent a complete change mainly by four major acquisitions’, she explains, ‘with the result that Merck transformed from a pharmaceuticals and chemicals company to a science and technology-driven company with three pillars in healthcare, life science and performance materials. As a member of the core teams in the acquisitions I was not only part of that change but could contribute shaping the new Merck’. She has had an equally important role in the development and continued excellence of the extensive, 200-person in-house legal function that she fronts. ‘Almost since day one in my current job’, recalls Dr Rotsch, ‘it was my goal to form one legal and compliance team that seamlessly works together across the different teams; previously we had excellent lawyers and compliance officers but the colleagues did not work together across teams. This effort has been successful, and clients now note and appreciate the alignment between the different groups in legal and compliance’. Dr Rotsch is keen to develop a culture of independence among her team, cultivating an assertive outlook that prizes individual agency when necessary. ‘An in-house counsel has to be a leader and a true business partner: he or she has to recognise trends, analyse them, take action and take the clients and other stakeholders along on the way to make the necessary changes’, she explains.